Yesterday was an incredibly productive day! (Today will be, too. I’m very motivated.)
When asked how I became a novelist, my usual joke is, “Spite.” But is it entirely a joke? Before I got on this high roll of productivity, I think a few things came together.
1. I have improved my health and work on that daily with diet and exercise. Feeling good means a clearer mind and more energy to spend. 2. I am enjoying The Productivity Project by Chris Bailey. Reading about becoming more productive won’t make me more productive on its own, but I do find the mindset motivating. Best takeaways so far: “Productivity isn’t about doing more things. It’s about doing the right things.” It’s less about a to-do list and more about accomplishments. What’s actually getting done? 3. Back to spite. I was disappointed that Vengeance Is Hers didn’t win a competition I’d won before with a different book. Submitting the novel to new competitions right away got me past that disappointment quickly.
Today’s agenda:
1. Polish the third draft of my next thriller, Where The Night Takes Us. 2. Exercise and meal prep. 3. Research audio tech requirements for recording audiobooks. 4. I’m not doing taxes yet, but I will consolidate to make sure I have all my receipts put together. 5. Read. 6. Post two videos to socials. 7. French study. 8. Watch The Pitt tonight!
Okay, that was overcompensating. It’s not all that cheery, what with the Doomsday Clock moving forward to just 85 seconds to midnight. Then there are the protests where people are getting killed. You’re thinking Minnesota, but the terrors are visiting Iran, too.
In an excellent podcast interview everyone should hear, a friend of mine talks about what’s going on in Iran. You need to hear this.Find Sher Kruse, author of Stoic Empathy,on the Chicago Unscripted Podcast wherever you listen to podcasts. It’s the January 28th episode: “Revolution and Death on the Streets of Iran.”
Sher believes a war with Iran is inevitable, but it’s not all doom and gloom. I especially liked her bus analogy. The bus won’t necessarily take you all the way to a solution, but it will bring you closer to better days. Too often, people say, “If we can’t fix everything immediately, we may as well not try to do anything at all.”
Striving for progress, not perfection, is how change happens.
In this morning’s episode of The Writing Life (and other things):
1. Don Lemon arrested. 2. A spam folder come-on. My work is headed for Hollywood! (Really? No.) 3. The final season of Queer Eye is done. The show’s uplifting message was somewhat undermined by friction within the cast. Karamo says he was bullied. If Antoni was in on that, I really don’t want to know and I’m not looking it up. He seems such a nice young man from Canada. It’s unthinkable. But Tan? Yeah, I can see that. And Jonathan must be exhausting. I always liked Bobby and Jeremiah.
The home reno was always the real workhorse of the show.For instance:
Tan: Let me show you the French tuck again to hide the belly. Antoni: Sweet guy, heart on his sleeve. “Here’s how to cook with your family and elevate a burger.” Jonathan: Says honey a lot. Dances. Clown manqué. Good at coloring hair, doesn’t do fades, needs to get more aggressive about trimming beards tighter. Karamo: Asks the heroes good, thought-provoking questions. “Let’s go make you some business cards.” Bobby and Jeremiah: “Let’s do the impossible in a week and transform your messy hovel into a lovely home.”
US News:
The Feds arrested Don Lemon for being a journalist!
The First Amendment (and Second, and Fourth) are just so old hat, I guess. Don Lemon spent a night in jail, but this prosecution/persecution is going nowhere (99.1% sure, anyway).
Maybe the Feds are using the Don Lemon arrest to distract from taking the ballots in Georgia. That will drum up a lot of propaganda about an election that has already been litigated and re-litigated. Trump has even accused Obama of election conspiracies when Obama was out of power. The poorest little billionaire whines that an election that he won was fixed. What?
Also, Pam Bondi? Speaking of distractions, any ETA on those Epstein files, or is the erasing of Trump’s presence there still not done? And by “presence,” I mean damning evidence.
Meanwhile, in Canada
Treasonous Albertans are trying to secede. I lived in Alberta for four years. Nice folks, generally. The few who fantasize about leaving Canada underestimate the cost to themselves of untangling from one of the greatest countries in the world. Going to US administration officials for big cash to facilitate this nonsense is treason, by the way. But bang on, ya knobs! Every insult is fuel for the wider, unapologetic patriotism among Canucks.
We didn’t always have a 24-hour news cycle.
Remember that? And yet, we can’t seem to squeeze it all in. So much news comes so fast, we’ve forgotten that policy-based politics is supposed to be boring. Distractions abound. Our attention is fragmented, and our bandwidth is too narrow. Some block out all the noise so they get no signal. Others are just busy trying to get through the day and make it pay. I can’t blame them, but those who can do something to save the future must do so. This morning’s spam folder had this silly anonymous offer:
Hello, I specialize in promoting high-quality book stories to film producers who routinely review written material for potential adaptation. When a producer shows interest in a story, authors are typically compensated in the range of $2,000–$3,000, depending on the strength and market appeal of the work. Your book aligns with the type of material currently being reviewed. Would you like a brief overview of how the promotion process works?
They could have at least gone to the trouble of signing it, making up a company, and telling me which of my books will soon go to the silver screen and win an Oscar. Bleh! Stop it!
FINAL THOUGHTS ON QUEER EYE AND MONEY
On the final episode of Queer Eye, the hero was a handsome, funny, and charming tour guide in Washington supporting a wife and five kids. Self-care is good, but watching this guy get told to be more present and take time for himself, all I could think was, “IN THIS ECONOMY?!”
NOTE: My wife worked as a tour guide and bus driver in Toronto, Quebec, and Niagara Falls for a few summers. It’s not a high-paying job. Tip: Next time you’re on a tour, tip generously if you can.
Anyway, the tour guide is dancing as fast as he can, and the Fab Five are telling him to somehow carve more time out of the clock and still make enough money to eat? His first kid was going off to college. I hope it was a great scholarship. The house renovation was nice. It was all nice. I enjoyed most of the entire run of QE. But that tour guide didn’t need a lecture on motivation and time management. He needs money.
The first episode of this final season was the best. Expect a few laughs and a lot of ugly crying. Expect to see Antoni Porowski as a judge on cooking shows from now until the end of civilization. Hopefully, that’s gives us all a lot of time.
In my upcoming novel, our protagonist is Dr. Simon Fethullah, a forensic psychiatrist who worked for the FBI. Shot on the job, he retires to the wilds of Montana with his wife Carla and his faithful dog, Stefano.
Simon helped put the Rainy Day Cannibal away, but the serial killer has disciples. Though behind prison walls, the killer’s reach can still find Simon. Add in a dead presidential press secretary and a kidnapped girl. Now you’ve got Where The Night Takes Us, a rocking psychological thriller that plays with the blurred limits of time and memory. (The query is on submission to agents.)
A Brief Excerpt from my Next Crime Thriller
To deal with what his wife calls his post-apocalyptic stress disorder, Simon takes his therapist’s advice. After a dark realization, he makes the following notes on his phone.
How to Slow Time’s March and Live Longer and Better
1. Eat healthier and in reasonable portions.
2. Move more and lift weights.
3. Prove Denise wrong by enjoying rural life.
4. Play with my dog more.
5. Watch less social media and talk to Carla more.
6. Be more social. (Be real. I won’t do that.)
7. Read more books. Maybe write another book.
8. Do not shoot self in head.
9. Shoot someone else in the head when they come for us.
In my neighborhood, there is a cursed place. Today, that location is a new sushi restaurant. Before that? A Burger Factory. Before that? A forgotten string of failures. A new renter arrives with fresh ideas and colossal hope. After a year or two, another restaurateur takes up the challenge and shoulders the curse. Why anyone invests all their life savings in a restaurant is a mystery to most. To anyone who does not share the dream of making unappreciated food for an oblivious public, it is madness.
I would never invest in a restaurant, but I understand the passion for the risk.
Some clods don’t think writing a book is “real work.” They devalue the effort and call it a hobby. Some even want it all for free. It’s just typing, after all, right? Hell, in weak and depressed moments, I’ve called it an expensive hobby! When a reviewer says, “I don’t understand why this book isn’t a bestseller,” all I can say is, “Me, neither, man.”
And how many people really have the time, energy, and attention span to read anymore? Is this really a job or a fairly pointless compulsion? What kind of fool wasted months or years to compose a novel?
Here, I raise my hand. I’m that kind of fool. I don’t know if my next book will be a smash hit, but I enter into every story with that same hope. It’s madness, really.
A peek into how my workday began
After only a few hours of sleep, I think I woke up around 3:30 a.m. I lay in bed with wild thoughts about Where The Night Takes Us. The manuscript needed an extra kick to get the grand seduction going. It’s a dance to draw readers in, and the steps were not quite right yet. I deleted a chapter yesterday to speed up the pacing. I added something crucial to the beginning yesterday, too. Satisfaction eluded me. What else would make the recipe sweeter?
Gave up on sleep at 4 a.m.
The nagging sense that I’d lose some sugar made me crawl out of bed and to my laptop. More words, particular and well-chosen, had to get written before I could lose the thread. I had to sew some seams and make the presentation more appetizing. Perfection is always out of reach, but at least I can make it more right.
Officially, Where The Night Takes Us will be my thirtieth novel. I’ve been here before. The energy behind the compulsion to get it published is always the same. Years ago, a novelist’s house caught fire. He braved the flames to reenter the burning building to save his manuscript. I get it, but it’s madness, isn’t it?
Anyway, I caught the words before they could slip away. If this is a curse, I must enjoy it. When the manuscript is fully baked and out of the oven, I hope you’ll enjoy my madness.
It is now 5:15 a.m., and my brain is buzzing. I may as well stay up and keep cooking. Somewhere out there, I have to believe hungry readers are waiting for my next concoction.
I got to the grocery store early for more yogurt because I found a fake cheesecake recipe you’ll want to eat every day, all day (below).
Crossword (Done! I abhor cross words, but I love crosswords.)
Read more of The Children of Men. Damn, this is a good book.
Study French.
Workout at home today (kettlebell, mobility, balance, bodyweight exercises, stationary bike, boxing, & lots of squats).
I am working through the third draft polish of Where The Night Takes Us. (Greatest challenge: timeline logistics.)
Now, to that fake cheesecake that’s going to blow your mind:
1 cup plain high-protein yogurt
1 egg
1 tablespoon cornstarch
splash of lemon and/or lemon zest
Optional: sweetener
Mix it up, slam it in a ramekin, bake at 350 for 12 minutes, review Vengeance Is Hers and/or join the review team for Where The Night Takes Us, and enjoy!
Optional: top with berries.
You’re going to love it.
If you like 1984, The Burning Library, It Can Happen Here, or A Different Drummer…
Fishing boats that could never make it to the United States from Venezuela are blown up. The killers don’t even know who they killed. Outlandish claims are used to justify colonialism and tyranny. Old allies are threatened while old enemies are embraced. People who seemed smart are working toward a future that values AI over human beings. Dumb and bigoted monsters spew hate-filled sophistry. Christian identity is placed above actual Christian values. Journalists who don’t ask follow-up questions become abused stenographers. Upholding the law is only for the lowly. Judgment is left to future historians instead of the courts. Dangerous users are protected by the powerful, and the helpless have no voice. A buffoonish conman with dementia has the nuclear codes.
This is not a complete list.
Q: What will 2026 bring?
Ar: More of the same.
Q: What can we do?
A: Hold on.
The same hate that brought the haters together will tear them apart. Their incompetence is the root of their failure. As the former cult members are betrayed by their champion’s false promises, they will peel off. Whistleblowers will find their breath. Former true believers will discover they have a spine after all. Eventually, many who voted for him will pretend they’ve never heard the name. When he comes up, they’ll look away and try to shift the conversation to anything else.
One day, we’ll look back and ask, “Why didn’t we have to wait for them to implode? Why didn’t the courts stop him? Why didn’t everyone laugh in his face? Where were you when the veil fell from everyone’s eyes? Why were you so quiet?”
About Me
I write fiction. I don’t like bullies. I trust science and distrust authority. I try to keep my worries to the things I can control. I escape into fiction by reading it and writing it.
About You
If you don’t agree, you won’t like my work, and we definitely should not be friends. Until you have your road to Damascus moment, that’s the way it is.
If you are a reader who feels as I do, we should be friends, and you’re going to love my books.
~ I am Robert Chazz Chute, the winner of fifteen writing awards. I pen crime stories, psychological thrillers, and apocalyptic epics, and I remain defiant.
First, a quick update, because you have to eat your meat before you get your pudding.
November was a very productive month for me. I’m flirting with a repetitive strain injury with all the time at the keyboard, but it’s really paying off. I participated in the ProWritingAid Challenge (the replacement for NaNoWriMo) and finished the first draft of my next thriller. It’s about a retired FBI forensic psychiatrist whose past comes back to haunt him. I’m plowing through the second draft now and loving it. More on that in the new year.
This fall, I started up the Vocab Menace Series, putting out videos every day. I LOVE WORDS! I love learning their origins and playing with ideas and I’ve had a lot of fun with it. I will continue, but not every day.
Evaluating Social Media
For years, I posted regularly on my writing blog (ChazzWrites.com). That was helpful early in my publishing career. I connected with some wonderful authors and made allies. Eventually, I decided it was best to consolidate my posts on my author blog and only post when I had something new and trenchant to say.
I found that posting everywhere (Bluesky, YouTube, Threads, Instagram, LinkedIn, Medium, Substack, TikTok, and the Book of Faces) takes a lot of time. Not all those platforms are worth the energy I invested.
My impressions of the usefulness of social media platforms (your mileage may vary):
I find the user interface for Bluesky and Threads unfriendly. The people are nice, but the platforms are not where they need to be yet. Discoverability is an opaque enigma wrapped in a burrito of mystery.
YouTube is good. Eventually, YouTube might pay me actual money.
One of the most active content categories on Medium is writing. Put that in your keywords, and people will look. Medium’s interface is cool, but following and connecting with people there is probably more useful than dedicating too much time to post every day. Because they are so alike, I feel similarly about Substack. I’m posting less on Medium now, more on Substack.
I’m not looking for a job or writing business books, so LinkedIn is a waste of time and energy.
I like Instagram. As a news source, I find many of the creators I follow there provide thoughtful commentary.
For the authors out there, BUT WAIT! THERE’S MORE!
As for Facebook, you can have a lot of followers, but your audience is far too throttled. They want you to pay to have your content seen. There are many ways it’s problematic. However, I connect with my inner circle of readers there.
I enjoy Facebook for my fan page and hope they never delete it. That happens sometimes, and when it happens, you probably won’t even know why. As a writer hoping to sell my work, it’s always best for me to have my own platform that can’t be ripped away.
The trouble with TikTok
TikTok has really fallen in terms of usefulness and tone. I used to be addicted to political debates there, but my favorite content creators left the platform. Others are competent, but very repetitive. Mostly, the live debates are angry people talking over each other. (Oh, and don’t forget the racist trolls. Lots of those.)
TikTok is a special case in some ways. BookTok can be great, but is often repetitive, covering the same few books (read: rarely mine). Also, some of the BookTok drama is ridiculous.
I would pursue book promotion there more avidly, but things are about to change for the worse. If you’re a Canadian author, sending review copies to the United States is expensive. To complicate things further for non-American authors, TikTok will soon become a walled garden, for the United States only. The details on that change are muddy, but when that happens, I won’t be able to reach my American readers through that platform. (That’s a shame. Most of my readers are from the United States.)
Conclusions
When my American readers can only see other Americans on TikTok, the platform’s value will plunge even further.
Between the forest of TikTok-friendly language and the suppression of posts meant to appease political actors and the new owners, TT’s once robust foundation will eventually sink into the shifting sands of irrelevancy.
Unless another app rises in TikTok’s stead, the change in ownership will benefit Instagram.
LinkedIn is for business. Not my business, though.
If you post for self-expression alone, enjoy using whatever platform you like.
From a time management perspective, don’t invest too much energy trying to post everywhere. It’s a lot to keep up with, and the juice isn’t worth the squeeze.
For gaining visibility and leverage social media platforms, follow and engage with people you enjoy.
Authentic engagement has more value than solely sending out signals.
Agents and publishers are obsessed with follower count. They shouldn’t be. Follower count means much less than engagement.
Social media is free to use for book promotion, but you get what you pay for. Author Jason Pargin posts excellent content. He has said that even with all his followers, that work does not translate significantly to a greater readership.
There are plenty of book marketing strategies out there. Some gurus push complicated flow charts of funnels. They all enthuse about newsletters. Some content creators make money from sharing “the newest trick.” The solution to selling books may be going direct, going wide, learning how to advertise (and funding it), keyword optimization, consistent branding, or some combination of all of the above, plus something else. Answers abound, but social media alone surely isn’t the cheap, easy solution.
You can’t make a viral video happen. Others choose that for you. I’ve gone viral once, but only because I made a lot of trolls angry. TikTok hid a lot of the nastiest comments because “the collapsed comments could be detrimental to your mental well-being.” Ha! As if my mental well-being was all that great to begin with! I could see the threats, and I had a peek. I just had to click on them to see the tidal waves of crash-outs.
My question: If the platform’s AI detects mean messages suggesting harm to me, why doesn’t the platform ban those trolls?
The hullabaloo hardly mattered in the end. The experience did lower my estimation of my fellow humans, but I didn’t respond to the trolls much. Arguing with fascists who are determined to be idiots is the ultimate waste of time. Always preserve your peace (between the punching Nazis thing, I mean).
On reaching readers:
All social media platforms suppress your signal to some degree.
To break through all the noise requires time, talent, energy, editing, and savvy marketing. Consistency is paramount, but only if you have the time and energy. As much as I love posting Vocab Menace content, it was cutting into my writing time. To get the next book out, protect that time. Prioritize productivity.
My writing time and energy is paramount to me at present. That much is working. My next thriller will be released early in 2026. That’s a concrete achievement I can measure.
~ REMINDER: Buy your books for Christmas now so you can read them before you wrap them for others.Happy holidays!
